Barn Owl Conan
by Pandakitty
Summary: Based on Sonoci's A Witch's Apprentice AU: Houseki and the team have been transported to a very strange place because of a rebound. The strangest rebound Houseki has ever experienced, and never wants to experience again.


Don't ask about the name BTW, it's something Sonoci and I thought of in Creative Writing and became kinda an inside joke between us OTL;;

This won't make any sense unless you've read A Witch's Apprentice (which, if you haven't, go do it right now, what do you wanna read this crap for?) And even then it'll be a little nonsensical, but I had fun with it.

Okay, I wrote this for my Creative Writing class, so it's got some explanations in it you probably don't have to read (if you've watched/read Detective Conan) and some magic explanation so you may not _actually_ have to have read AWA, but you should anyway.

Well… here ya go~!

* * *

"N-no! Get down from there! You're not an owl!" Houseki yelled to the boy, whom was above her on the rafters of the barn they somehow were transported to. She had just tried a simple teleportation spell to get into a Furui Islands, and somehow they ended up much farther away… in a barn… and now Conan was acting as though he was an owl. Sweat ran down Houseki's cheek, she was slightly annoyed by this. She'd never experienced a rebound that had more than one effect.

Sighing, she looking around her to find some way to get up there, forgetting for a second she could fly up there herself. Magic always had its uses, no matter the situation.

"Alright Conan, it's time to come down from-" walking across the rafter, she dived for the boy. Unfortunately he spotted a mouse on the floor of the barn, and, as an owl, swooped down to catch it, "here…?" finally finishing her sentence, she nearly fell before doing another spell to gently float to the ground.

When she landed, the boy was trying to pick to mouse up just as an owl would, with his 'talons'. He was unable to do so of course, considering he had shoes, not talons. The poor mouse was squished under his foot.

"Ew." Houseki said as she looked at the mouse, "C-Conan… I… I really should go find that owl… But I can't just leave him here…" she said thinking aloud. She rubbed her head in frustration, "Where is everyone else anyway?"

Finished with the mouse since he'd flattened it beyond repair, Conan decided to go back up to the rafters. At this point Houseki cursed Akako for giving him the attribute emblem. If she hadn't, the boy wouldn't be able to constantly fly away from her. But as long as he had those angel-like wings, he was going to continue doing so, she knew that from the start.

"Stay there!" she commanded, she knew she didn't have to say it. She sighed, because she also knew if she left him he would eat any mouse that came in here. Wait… weren't owl nocturnal? She looked back at the boy and he was asleep. That kind of made things easier, she had until evening at least to find the others… and hopefully find the owl too.

Carefully going out the door while watching that Conan didn't wake up, she looked around for any sign of life. She found some pretty quickly, but it wasn't exactly what she had expected, or wanted for that fact. There were cows, out in a pasture, hundreds of them. She had to wonder where she could possibly be to see so many of them in one place. She figured she had to be in a place with a lot of wide, open fields, but she couldn't think of a place that would be.

She then spotted a person, a girl. She had blonde hair and she stared in surprise at Houseki. She pointed at her then screamed and turned to run. "… What the hell was that about?" she continued to stare at the spot that the girl used to occupy. "Well, if there was a girl, maybe there's a house somewhere around here." She walked in the direction that the girl had run, continuing to look around at the same time to see any other sign of life.

Eventually she came upon a house, a farmhouse. At least it meant someone was here. She walked up to the door and knocked on it a few times, she heard a yell of 'It's her!' come from inside and some mumbling before the door opened. The girl who opened the door stared wide-eyed at her, "Y-yes?" she stuttered.

"Oh… uh… hello…" Houseki said, she hadn't thought of what she was going to ask yet. "Um… this might seem like a strange question but… do you know where any owls are?"

"Th-there… might be… a barn owl in the barn?" The girl continued to stutter her answer. Houseki finally got a good look at her now, she was pretty short with somewhat red hair.

"W-wait!" the girl from before ran up to the door, "Did you say owl? Don't tell me our joke actually happened… I mean if you're suddenly real then… oh this can't be good…" she seemed to start panicking.

The other girl turned to her, "Y-yeah… but I have to wonder which one it is…"

"Which one what…?" Houseki was extremely confused by their conversation. She had no idea what they're talking about.

"Qu-quick! Close the door! She could kill us!" another girl came running from the same place the blonde came from, she had dark brown hair.

"O-oh, no, no, no! I don't kill people…" and quietly she added, "anymore…"

"Hmm?" the redhead looked at Houseki suspiciously, "Well, I guess this could be post-Lucifer Houseki… but then why is she looking for an owl…? Oh this is starting to confuse me!"

_Your one to talk! I've been confused from the second you opened your mouth!_ Houseki thought and looked annoyed at the girls, _Wait… post-_Lucifer_! … they know who Lucifer is… they don't _look _like witches…Well… that one with the glasses and the dark hair does but…_

Suddenly the door slammed in Houseki's face. Then it opened again, "Geez, there's no reason to assume it's _evil_ Houseki! In fact, it probably _isn't_ since she hasn't killed us yet." The girl with the blonde hair said, "Besides, I haven't written that yet so it has to be _after_ it!"

"Written what?" Houseki was confused again. _Okay… so these girls know who _I_ am, but I have no _idea_ who _they_ are…And this one is writing some story about what _I_ have been doing? … This still makes so sense…_

"Let's invite her in." the witch-like girl said, apparently while Houseki was thinking they were deciding whether they trust her enough or not.

"Come on in Houseki!" the blonde grinned and all three girls stepped out of the way. Houseki cautiously walked in the door and looked around. It _looked_ like a normal farmhouse. Yet it housed the _least_ normal girls she'd ever seen, not that she could talk considering when she was young she nearly killed everyone in the world… but that was over ten thousand year ago! …And again, she shouldn't be saying these girls are weird… since she's older than anyone else in this world as far as she knew.

Suddenly another girl whom also had red hair came down the stairs that were to the

right of the door.

"You're finally up!" the other girl with the red hair said, "Geez, you slept forever."

"Well _sorry_." The girl whom had just came down the stairs pouted, "I need lots of sleep you know!"

"That's because you were up all night playing Pokémon." The brown-haired girl said.

"Oh my god!" the girl on the stairs suddenly yelled, then she stepped forward and fell down the stairs. She got up after mumbling 'ow…' and yelled again, "It's Houseki!"

"Uh… yeah, you're kinda late to do any screaming, that's all done and over with." The blonde said and smiled.

"Oh… so this is not _evil_ Houseki?" the fourth girl said.

"Can you guys tell me your names…?" Houseki quietly asked, _it's getting hard to tell you guys apart… err… _girls_…_

"Huh? Oh, I'm Eri." The first redhead answered.

"I'm Kiro~" the blonde yelled cheerfully, Houseki could tell her vigor wasn't going to die down anytime soon.

"Hari." The witch-like one put up her hand as if to say 'hi' when she answered.

"I'm…" the last girl rubbed her bottom, "hurt."

"Nice to meet you, Hurt!" the other three said in unison.

"Rebi." The last one finally said.

"O-okay…" Houseki smiled, _I'm never going to remember all their names…_

"There's only four of us, how hard could it be?"

"Holy crap, did you just hear my thoughts?" Houseki looked around at the girls, she couldn't figure out who had said that, she guessed it was Hari since she looked like a witch, and perhaps she had the Ear for Thought.

"And for those of you who don't know, the Ear for Thought is the ability to read minds!" Hari then grinned. That made Houseki _sure_ she was a witch.

"O-okay… so… AUGH, I don't have time for this, I need to find that owl!" Houseki had enough and turned back around. She flung open the door to see Kaito and Saguru, two of the people she had been with before the rebound. Kaito had his hand about to knock on the door. "Oh, Houseki… guess we finally found someone." Kaito said matter-of-factly.

"Indeed… can't say I'm relieved just yet if it's only Houseki." Saguru said to Kaito.

"Hubby~!" the blonde girl (Kiro? Or something like that at least) jumped in front of Houseki can grabbed onto Kaito, "You've finally come home~!"

"Wh-what?" Kaito yelled, trying to shake the girl's hold from him. Houseki could tell he'd never seen that girl in his life, and there was no way she could be married to him. This was beginning to get more confusing by the second.

Finally getting Kiro to let go of him, Kaito took a step back, "I-I'm not your husband! You barely even look my age, not to mention we've never met before!" suddenly he glanced at the other girls and a look of terror came over his face. "Y-you! You're! You're that girl! That girl in the books!"

"Hmm?" Hari questioned, pointing at herself, "Me?" then she laughed, "Oh yeah! That! But that was just in my mind so… I guess these guys came from my mind!"

"…What?" Houseki said and looked around at everyone, then yelled in frustration, "You two! We have to find a barn owl, got it? Now get looking!" she stomped off, not sure exactly where she was going. She decided anywhere but that house was a good place to look.

"If we're looking for a _barn_ owl, shouldn't we look in a _barn_? Not to mention…" Saguru said, knowing full well that Houseki couldn't here him, "why are we looking for a barn owl in the first place?" he turned Kaito, who merely shrugged.

* * *

They'd been searching for God knows how long before they decided to stop. The girls from the house had decided to tag a long and even brought something to eat. They all sat down in a patch of grass and took out some sandwiches. Houseki then explained why they needed to find a barn owl.

"I see…" Saguru said, thinking over the information he'd just heard, "These rebounds sound very tricky…"

"Well, they're random, so anything could happen. They can happen at any time too, no matter how skilled a witch or wizard you are, they can happen." One would have expected Houseki to be saying this, but it was actually Kiro. She smiled, "And they only way you can fix a soul switch is by finding the item the person's soul was switched with."

Everyone but one of the girls with the red hair (Eri…? She was the short one right?) stared at Kiro like what she was saying was impossible to comprehend. Most of the people there _did_ understand it, but it was still a little surprising that she knew that. _Is she a witch too?_ Houseki wondered.

"Uh… yeah, that's pretty much it…" Houseki said staring at the sky, "I should probably head back to that barn and make sure Conan hasn't flown off anywhere…" she sighed, rebounds were _normally_ a pain, but this one went way beyond that at this point. It made her want to fly off and say 'find the owl and fix him yourselves!' but she knew she couldn't do that. She was past all that _evil_ stuff, but it was tempting to go back to it.

"Then lets go to the barn!" Rebi immediately stood up and turn back the way they had come. She suddenly stopped and turned back, "Which way it the barn again?"

"It's right over there." Eri pointed to, well, a barn. Apparently they'd just gone in a big circle. They all stood up then and headed to the barn. When they got inside there was someone there _besides_ Conan.

"Oi, Kudo! What'cha doin' up there? Come down, this ain't no place ta sleep!" the person said, Houseki couldn't remember his name though. She just knew that he was called 'Smithy' by some of the others.

"Hey!" Houseki yelled at… uh… _Smithy_, "His soul's been exchanged with an owl's. Just leave him there so we can find it." The boy turned around to look at all of them. Houseki heard one of the girls scream… actually it was more like a squeal.

"I-I-I-it's! It's Heiji!" Eri started jumping up and down. Then she started clapping and ran over to Heiji (that was his name? Somehow that sounded strange…) and threw her arms around him.

"Uh… hi?" he blushed a little at the affection he was receiving from the girl.

"Pfffft, that's not Heiji, he doesn't look anything like that." Hari said, somewhat glaring at the boy.

"E-excuse me?" Heiji looked up at Hari, then glared back at her, "Oh no, it's you… you're the one who said ya di'n't know who I was despite knowin' _ever'one_ else in the room… Wait, didn't ya come out of the Dimensional Door?"

"The what?" Houseki said, confused again.

"Oh, details, details!" Hari waved it off, "I still say you don't look like that."

"How can I _not_ look the way I do?" he continued to glare at Hari, "A-anyway, what're ya doin' here? Shouldn't ya be in that door?"

"Oh, that was the door to my mind, not the door to where I actually am."

"Then where exactly is this place?"

"Smithy! Where did you run off to?" a voice from outside yelled, "Are you… oh… uh… hi?" it was that witch, Akako.

"Hi." Everyone seemed to say in unison.

"Oh, Ku-ah, Conan," Akako laughed nervously, everyone seemed to forget they couldn't call Kudo 'Conan' around strangers or people who didn't know 'Conan' was just a fake name used to make sure a secret organization didn't find him. Houseki happened to be the leader of that organization, and they all knew that. Why Conan was still using that name she didn't really understand, but what did that matter? It seemed to be a way of making sure some girl he'd been living with didn't know of his true identity. It was all very complicated and confusing most of the time. "What is he doing up there?" Akako asked finally.

"His soul has been switched with a barn owl's." Houseki explained for what felt like the hundredth time, although she knew it was only the third.

"Oh…" Akako stared at the door, "Actually, I don't think this was a soul switch… I think his mind's just been scrambled a bit into _thinking_ he's an owl. When that rebound happened and we all ended up here he probably tried to stop it, but that caused a rebound in itself and he ended up like this." Akako used her own flying spell to go up to the rafters and sit next to Conan, "Unfortunately, I don't know how to fix these kinds of spells. And considering Houseki couldn't even recognize it, I doubt she knows how to fix it either. Luckily, we have Smithy~ so we can fix anything."

Heiji sighed, "An' how da ya expect me ta fix him all the way up there?" he pushed Eri away, who sulked back to the other girls.

"Guess he doesn't like me much…" she whispered to the other girls why sniffling.

"That's not true!" the other girls tried to comfort her, "He just likes Kudo more!"

Eri instantly smiled, "And that's A-okay with me~!" Houseki could practically _see_ that heart at the end of that sentence.

"What was with that explanation though? I never made that up." Kiro continued to whisper.

"Oh, I made that up so it'd be easier to explain what went on rather than them having to find that owl." Eri scratched the back of her head.

"Oh…" Kiro replied.

While she wasn't paying attention, Akako had brought Heiji up to the rafters and he'd already begun work on Conan's Soul Paths. Soul Paths were basically veins that carried magic rather than blood, and Heiji being a Soul Smith (which is what earned him the name 'Smithy') could see and touch the Soul Paths while normal humans couldn't. It was pretty useful to have him on their team, especially at times like this.

After he was done Conan started yelling at him for not fixing him sooner. Apparently the boy was well aware of what he was doing, but he couldn't stop himself. This was a strange rebound indeed.

Once all three of them were done the group started talking about how they would get out of there. They had no idea where they even were; let alone how to get home.

"So… first we have to find out where we are…" Conan sighed.

"You're on a farm near Esterhazy, Saskatchewan." One of the girls said, Houseki had missed exactly who said it.

"… Where?" the five that had just came to this place all said in unison.

Eri sighed, "I figured you would have no idea what that is…"

"I think we've traveled to another dimension…" Saguru said, writing something in his notebook, "Considering that girl who was in the dimensional door is here. Is there any way of traveling through dimensions?"

"Y-yes… but I've never tried a spell like that before…" Akako sighed, "Have you Houseki?"

"Yes… once, I think I remember the spell for getting back even… but I can't be sure." Houseki was nervous. It was a long time ago that she'd tried that spell. She knew they'd all want her to try it right now, but she wasn't sure if she _could_ do it.

"Well, it's worth a shot." Kaito smiled, "Because if it _doesn't_ work, I'm going to have this girl clinging to me for the rest of my life."

Kiro smiled at everyone, but suddenly Heiji said, "Chousha?"

"Huh?" Kiro replied.

"Is your name Chousha? Ya look jus' like her." Heiji questioned again.

"N-no, my name's Kiro."

"Oh… maybe there's people in this dimension who look just like people from our dimension?" Conan said, he obviously thought that Kiro was this Chousha girl also. Houseki had to wonder just who this girl was… was she important?

"A-anyway," Akako interrupted their conversation, "Houseki, can you try that spell? I really just want to get back home. We can go to the Furui Islands some other time."

"R-right" Houseki agreed. She chanted a long phrase for the spell and suddenly they disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

Houseki still didn't quite understand all that had happened at that farm, but she was glad to be away from it. Those girls really annoyed her, and they said so many strange things that didn't make sense. She started to wonder if the dimension she was from was actually a book written by one of those girls. It would make most of what they said make sense. But why did they end up there because of the rebound? What is just because one of those girls wrote it?

Houseki rubbed her head in frustration, "Forget it!" she told herself, "You will never understand those girls, or that dimension!" Telling herself didn't help much. She began to think again. Maybe those girls were put there because they're crazy, and they have to live the rest of their days on that farm away from the rest of society! Yeah, that must be it… oh no, that couldn't be… they didn't seem quite _that_ insane.

She decided to give it up for now; maybe she could go back there and ask them. Not that they would know, but it was worth a shot… but not sometime in the near future. Definitely not, Houseki had had enough craziness for the rest of her life. And considering she was immortal because of that potion she drank all those years ago, it could be a long time before she died. She may never die… perhaps she'd go back there after one of her lifetimes was over.

Wait, what if that dimension had time just like hers? Then they would be either really old, or dead by that time. She rubbed her head frustrated again, "Stop thinking about it stupid, you'll drive yourself insane!"

A snowflake landed and melted on Houseki's cheek. She almost instantly forgot about those stupid girls. Snow always made her smile and forget her troubles. It had been summer in that place, but it was already winter here. She'd almost forgotten that. She continued to smile and stare at the falling snow. By the time it stopped she'd completely forgotten why she'd been frustrated and confused. It was nice to let her thoughts melt away sometimes, just like the snow as it landed on the ground.

"Hey!" Conan called to her, "What are you doing standing outside, you're going to catch a cold!" He snapped Houseki out of her thoughtless state, but she continued to smile. The snow may be gone soon, but she was going to stick around a while longer. She usually would travel away after a few days in one place, but she had friends here. If she ever needed a place to call home, she knew she could come here.

* * *

"Hey, Kiro! I finished it!" Eri ran excitedly to her friend with paper in her hands.

"Really? Awesome!" Kiro grabbed the paper and read every word as fast as she could, "… that ending was kind of… random…"

"Yeah, I know, but I had to put something in there about Hoshi."

"And yet they don't mention Hoshi at all in this."

"Yeah… well…" Eri looked at her toes, "Sorry… but I actually liked writing the ending, so I'm not gonna change it, 'kay?" she looked back up and smiled.

"… Yeah, okay. Don't blame me if you get a bad mark on this… I mean it doesn't even make any sense!" Kiro handed Eri back the papers, "You really should think about what you write for Creative Writing better."

"I'm sorry." Eri hung her head in shame, "I've defiled your amazing story! I should be ashamed of myself!" she ran off up the stairs crying.

"I didn't exactly mean it like that…" Kiro laughed nervously, "Sorry…" unfortunately, it was too late, Eri couldn't hear her anymore.

* * *

Uh… yeah… didn't make any sense did it? But hey, Sonoci loved it, so therefore it must be awesome! (just kidding, she's not allowed to say it sucked because she's my friend)

Anyway, REVIEW PLEASE ^^


End file.
